YouTube, TED, Announce Ads Worth Spreading for 2013

For the third year, YouTube and TED have picked out the top 10 Ads Worth spreading, all of which will be showcased at this year’s TED, currently in full swing in Long Beach. Ads were chosen based on categories of Talk, Social Good, Cultural Compass, Creative Wonder, Brand Bravery, and Education. Each category had a TED speaker and a “rising thinker” in advertising to find ads, and 25 leaders in the industry searched for ads across all the categories. The ones picked always have resonance and serve as a great model for content creators as they strive to create something that will have impact.

TED’s Ads Worth Spreading 2013

Here they are:

1. Expedia: Find Your Understanding. This is a fairly controversial ad depicting a father coming to terms with his daughter getting married in a same-sex ceremony. The ad touches the same kind of heartstrings that we saw in winning Super Bowl ads this year, only this time the subject matter is something you’d never see in a Super Bowl, at least not in these times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThzdsnXeE28

2. Coke: Security Cameras. Most of the time when we see security camera footage, we’re seeing something horrible. Coke created an ad where security cameras caught really good things, and it instantly becomes an uplifting ad:

3. Dumb Ways to Die (Metro Trains PSA). This ad is hilarious, has been watched more than 40 million times, and is all about safety around trains, but this animated video shows a bunch of other dumb ways to die along with a catchy song:

4.Dell – Meet Annie, the Girl Who Could Fly. Annie proves to her class that she can fly using tricks performed by her Dell computer:

6. Rain Forest Alliance – Follow the Frog. This hilarious ad brings up that uncomfortable subject about being an environment-conscious human being, and being outraged about the rain forest, but feeling powerless to do anything about it. The ad here is realistic about what you can do, and it looks like the Rain Forest Alliance came up with a solution that makes the most sense:

7. Channel 4 Paralympics – Meet the Superhumans. This ad is emotional and tough and fast-moving, as athletes with strength most of us can’t fathom get ready to compete in the Paralympics back in August of last year:

9. Dodge Ram – Farmer. It looks like they got this one in just under the wire, as the much-talked about Super Bowl ad from this year gets a place at TED. Obviously a great ad, here it is again:

10. The Guardian – Three Little Pigs. This outstanding advertisement for UK newspaper The Guardian takes a simple fable and turns it into a story we need to look deeper into, and of course, The Guardian is the one doing the hard-hitting journalism here:

Congrats to the winners and getting prominent exposure at TED!

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